This invention, which resulted from a contract with the United State Department of Energy, relates to a process for producing hydrogen and oxygen by exposing algae in an aqueous phase to light under anaerobic conditions.
It has been demonstrated that certain algae, when placed in an aqueous phase and exposed to light in the absence of carbon dioxide and oxygen, split water into molecular hydrogen and oxygen. However, the proposed use of algae and solar energy to produce hydrogen for fuel has not yet become economically feasible because the algae used heretofore provide low hydrogen yields and also lose their color (or chlorophyll) after a relatively short exposure to light and thus become ineffective.